Tag Archives: Montreal

Beat Cops are a now defunct Montreal band who I found through the usual random digging on Bandcamp. The title is a pretty accurate summation of my thoughts the first time I heard them, these guys are some of the tightest musicians I’ve had the pleasure of listening too.

Right from the opener “Emotional” to the closing of “Back in Time”, they are on fucking point through every single track. Everything has it place and is played to perfect, making even the most obtuse of grooves work. It’s like math rock but overlayed with the style of 70’s arena funk band.

The goddamn organ solo on “Hit it Again”. So unexpected. So good.

This album is tagged only with “rock” on Bandcamp which does a disservice to how technical these guys get. Its all such a pleasure to listen to, muscular musicality without turning into flashy wank.

It saddens me that they went belly up but I am happy that this flash was caught in the amber. $10 CAD.

Ever heard the joke about the nihilist clown? Nevermind, it doesn’t matter.

Hashed Out are a hardcore punk band from Montreal whose debut EP I have jammed for the last two years. Late nights, tired, mad, cold – those 6 tracks cranked to the threshold of pain always woke me up and cleared my sinuses.

“Cosmic Pessimism” was released in October and is their first full length. First impressions? Dirty. Real fuckin’ dirrrrty. You come up to a certain kind of person and play them this album, they’re gonna look at you cross-eyed and spit on your Walkman. This shit sounds crusty and piss nasty, all rough tones and filthy mix. This gives it the strange characteristic of sounding like shit at low volumes, but get that up loud and yousa in for a gooood time.

Slipping and sliding their way between grindcore, d-beat, crust punk and straight up noise, these guys don’t stop for breath, like not even a smoke break. Just punch, kick, grind, rend and tear into the teddy bears.

Shit like “The Law Down Here” – rips its shirt off flying through the caustic intro only to slam down some fuckin’ vile chug riffs, culminating into a donkey-punching breakdown. SO FILTHY. Everything in one song, grind, d-beat punkers, elephant-marching breakdown. Mix it up and chug ‘er down.

Or the feedback that opens “Bad Dreams”. That shit ain’t no artsy feedback, pulled away just in time before the dB’s getcha. Nah, this shit stabs those eardrums like a rusty steel wire, then dumps your ass in one hell of a circle pit.

I love this album. It’s rough as fuck and gets me stoked to see them live, something you can’t always say. $7 on Bandcamp.

Other than waking up to the joy discomfort of an exam today, I also got to wake up to the release of Trigger Effect’s new EP, “Escape From Plant Scorpion”. I posted about the associated video and teaser last week and now you can feast your filthy ears on the full jam.

“Escape From Planet Scorpion” is essentially a concept album about the journeys of Turbo Machine and it’s valiant efforts to escape the draconian grasp of the fearsome Space Scorpions. This epic yarn is weaved into a 11 minute track, composing half the EP. Before you start screaming heresy at the thought of an 11 minute punk ‘n’ roll song, just hold your horses, cuz this shit rips.

The track is chock full of solid riffage, galloping melodies and shred-tastic solo work. The opening charge grinds it’s way down to a helpless spiral as Turbo Machine face their doom. All seems lost as the scorpions control grows ever stronger, but the resilient Turbo Machine struggle onwards. They toss their shackles aside and make a desperate bid for their reliable Heliocraft, hoping it will not fail them now and allow them to escape their torturous captors.

On the B side of this EP there is “LARP” (Legendary Armaments, Real Pain) which was written for the “Lloyd the Conqueror” soundtrack. Lloyd is a movie previously unknown to me but after doing some research it sure looks worth seeing. A group of college slackers/LARP’ers must do battle against the evil and self-proclaimed lord of the LARP’ers.

(For anyone who’s not a huge nerd like the rest of us, LARP = Live Action Role playing = Dudes dressed as wizards hitting each other with foam swords)

While it might sound lame to some keep in mind the soundtrack features such alumni as Trigger Effect, Barn Burner, 3 Inches of Blood and Bison BC along with starring Mike Smith (Bubbles from Trailer Park Boys) and Brian Posehn (a metric crapton of funny stuff). So yeah, awesome.

Even after all that fancy back story and movie involvement, both tracks still shred and are worth your time and headbang points. “Escape From Planet Scorpion” is up on iTunes, Bandcamp and through the Indica Records website for $4. LARP away!

Let me start by saying Trigger Effect are fucking rad. I don’t know whats in the beer/drugs/poutine over in Montreal, but that city manages to pump out killer bands without fault. Trigger Effect are no exception to this rule. A healthy kick in the teeth of riff centered punk played fast and played well. The songs are short, fun and laden with hooks and sweet grooves.

The new video, made in support of their new album “Escape From Plant Scorpion”, out on April 17th through their label Indica Records. Featuring the band playing a set at one of the cleanest but empties bars I’ve seen. They have to deal with a glam filled opening band (cameos by Barn Burner abound), a dickwad of a sound guy and after that they only get paid with a single garbage bag. The going rate is at least two, maybe Glad bags if your lucky.

Alright I’m just gonna out and out say it. If you like what I usually post on this blog, there’s a good chance your gonna hate this, but I really love tech-death so your getting exposed to it anyway.

Beneath the Massacre keep up the long standing tradition of kick ass bands that come from Montreal. “Incongruous” is their third full length release to date and they’re currently signed with Prosthetic Records.

If you could imagine for a second, having a stream of chainsaws and razor blades being thrown at your face as a man with a sledgehammer beats a staccato rhythm against your skull, to the vocal accompianment of what sounds like a man gargling napalm and dining on fetid corpses. That should give you a rough mental picture of the kind of absolutely destructive force these guys produce.

Bone shattering blast beats provide the backbone for a mouth watering combination of 8-string finger tapping and neck snapping breakdowns. If you’ve ever wondered what it felt like to have your head melted from the inside out, listen to this album. The pace is relentless, only letting up so an equally violent breakdown can come along and try and force your nose to the back of your skull by way of the table. Don’t let the breakdowns scare you though, this is tech-death at it’s heart, the small tastes of deathcore go a long way in keeping things fresh.

So if the above hasn’t sent you running in terror and you’ve got a craving for some ground splitting technical brutality, you can pick up “Incongruous” on iTunes and at all the major outlets. I’ve got the usual links and the video for “It”. Skull-fuckery away!

Barn Burner hail from Bongtreal (Read: Montreal). Comprised of four sleazy dudes they play exactly what the title says. New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) at it’s core but covered in weed resin, beer, gravy and cheese curds. These guys shred.

Currently with 2 full albums, Bangers, and Bangers II: Scum of the Earth and signed with Metal Blade Records, they have not been getting nearly enough attention. Press play on any of their tracks and you get blasted with foot stomping riffs and beer drinking drums. Playing more in the mid tempo range, than the face blistering range, you get plenty of time to bang your head or air guitar along.

With a strong hesher influence seen in songs such as “Scum of the Earth”, “Keg Stand and Deliver” or “Beer Today, Bong Tomorrow”, Barn Burner always keep shit rowdy without loosing track of that oh so glorious riffage.

They’ll be playing a couple of Canadian dates this month, so get tickets, get wasted and get head banging.